The Guardian - Part 1: An Unexpected Companion
by OrangeDalek
Summary: Everyone says that turning 18 signals the first chapter of your adult life. For Jason, it signals something greater. During the night after his birthday, he awakes to a loud crash caused by a mysterious, black sphere falling from above. Upon contact, he is pulled into an adventure he could only dream of as he experiences what he knew to be fiction. His life just got turned around.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: What the Heck Just Happened?

 **WARNING! ALL CHARACTERS ARE PURELY FICTIONAL. ANY RELATION TO REAL LIFE BEINGS IS COMPLETELY COINCIDENTAL.**

 **A single, bold underlined word like** **this** **signals a link (which I hope works) to some music that is completely optional to listen to. A regular underlined word like** this **is where the music should be stopped. Hopefully links actually work here. If they don't, I put the exact titles of the music in the stories to listen to on YouTube. Timing may or may not be exact.**

 **Location: Denver, Colorado. Time: August 12th 2016. 2:00 A.M.**

Two things were going through Jason's mind at the moment. One: Yesterday was one of the best birthdays he ever had. Two: What was that noise that woke him up from his peaceful slumber?

Jason Moore had just turned 18 the day before and had decided to celebrate with his friends in a few games of laser tag. He wanted to spend as much time with his two friends, Luke and Zane, as possible before they all headed off to college in the upcoming weeks.

"Maybe you guys would've won more games if you had skills."

"Well maybe we would've if you had joined our team instead of the color you wanted Zane."

"But blue is the best Luke! They explode everything."

"Only in Team Fortress 2, Zane. Plus red kills robots and that's cool. Luke, does it really matter if we won? I had a great time and from the look you had on your face, you did too."

"Yeah...I guess you're right."

The team he had chosen, which was the red team, lost most of the games, especially since Zane decided to be on the blue team. Zane has an uncanny knack for all forms of weaponry, his favorite being blades of all sizes. Luke had been on the red team with Jason, but cared not for those skills. Luke was a very creative individual that led to him developing excellent strategies that allowed the red team to win a couple of times. Jason didn't care though. He had had too much fun to care. With his energy depleted from the day's activities, once he got home he went to bed early.

Upon waking, he was hit with pain in his stomach. He turned over and started climbing down the ladder that led to his loft bed. During this process, he was careful not to wake the family cat that loved to sleep on his bed. The traditional Siamese cat did not stir as he made the first steps down the ladder. The female feline's name was Chainot or "Chai" for short; named after the Chainot province in Thailand. The cat was fast asleep on her side, revealing a white-furred belly amongst the sea of black that covered the rest of her body. The seal-pointed cat had bonded to Jason when they bought it from the local Petsmart 7 years ago. Since then, it always bothered him for attention in a unique way. Unlike other cats, this particular one meows in a squeak-like fashion, and that is what Jason loved the most about his cat.

He groaned as he made his way down the rest of the ladder. He felt terrible. He had foolishly eaten the pizza that Zane bought from a nearby Little Caesar's before laser tag, but he just couldn't help himself. If there's one food Jason would be content eating for the rest of his life, it would be any type of pizza available to him. Eating it though, had been a mistake. His stomach felt like he had eaten rocks. Made of steel. Jason had a gluten intolerance so he stayed away from wheat filled products, lest he feel like the way he did at that time.

" _Nothing I can do about it now._.." Jason thought to himself. " _I really should stay away from pizza, even though I LOVE pizza..._. _Great, now I'm hungry_."

(Insert **1AM (Extended) - Animal Crossing: New Leaf Music** here)

 **As** he got to the floor of his room, he looked up at the shelves of Legos and coffee mugs, which he could barely make out. He noticed through the window that allowed him to view the street that the sky was darkened. " _Must be overcast_ " he thought. He then looked at his younger brother's Legos on some other shelves, for he shared a room with his brother, 13 year old David. As he looked at the sleeping form of his youngest sibling, he was reminded of his younger days. Even though Jason loved his brother, David always found a way to push his older brothers buttons. When they were both younger, they acted like a personal war went on between them every day. They argued over the smallest of things, such as who would get to play video games first or what to watch. As they matured, their attitudes improved and they got along really well for the most part. This period of his past led Jason to develop a great deal of patience towards his brother and life in general, even more than his parents. He would miss spending time with his family once college classes started, of that he was sure. He looked up at the walls of the room, lined with posters of various fandoms. Jason and David were proudly self-proclaimed nerds; the kind that watched and talked about something over and over because they enjoyed it immensely. Jason put on his dark brown slippers, exited the room and walked through the hallway past his sisters room. He then went inside the bathroom that was next to his parents' room at the end of the hall.

He slowly closed the door and turned on the lights to look at himself in the mirror. He splashed a bit of water from the sink on his face to wake up a little more, then dried his face off with a towel. He looked at his face and there were a couple of pimples, one on his chin and one on the left side of his forehead.

"Great...just fantastic" he mumbled to himself with more than a hint of sarcasm. " _I'll deal with that later, I want to know exactly what woke me up in the first place_." With that thought, he left the bathroom, turned the lights off and slowly went back through the hall towards the stairs. As he was walking, he looked at the wall and could make out the silhouettes of the figures in the framed pictures hanging there. From memory, Jason knew the details of each and every one of the faces in those pictures. There was one he especially knew by heart. It was a picture taken 6 years ago and was of his family the last time they had gone to Disney World, which was a special treat for all of them.

As he passed the photo, he visualized the faces in it. Jason knew that on the the left side, their was himself. To his left was his younger sister, Amelia. Currently 15 years old, she had pale skin, blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair. Her physique was thin with slender arms and legs. She was the peacekeeper of the house, for she always tried to resolve the arguments that popped up. She was also the only one who had a sense of fashion in the family. Her wardrobe was always organized and ready for any occasion. Though she had a kind heart, she always berated the others in a loving way on their clothing choice. To Amelia's left was his brother David. At 13, David had just started shaving even though his facial hair was only visible to those who looked for it. He had inherited their mother's blond hair along with their father's short temper. David was the athlete of the family. He had a stocky build, yet was light on his feet. He was naturally muscular and loved to participate in physical labor, especially when it helped someone he cared for. The old saying "If you can't take it, don't dish it out" meant nothing to David as he would tease his friends and family but could only take so much before he would storm off. Behind the trio of siblings were their parents. Jason's mother was quickly becoming the shortest of their family as David grew in height. Her blond hair and green eyes accentuated her warm-hearted smile. His father stood next to her and remained the tallest of the bunch. Jason looked forward to the day he would finally become taller than his dad. His black hair and beard was starting to show his age as grey hairs showed themselves. His blue eyes looked teal through the glasses he had to wear.

After dwelling at the photo for a couple of minutes, Jason crept slowly down the stairs so as not to make any loud noises. At the bottom of the stairs, he had to take a larger than normal step to get over the Golden Retriever sleeping there. The 8 year old golden dog named Chester was moving his back leg and making incredibly soft barking sounds. " _Must be chasing Chai_ " he thought as he landed softly on the hardwood floor next to the front door. He then tiptoed his way through the dining room to the kitchen.

Going through the kitchen, Jason reached the fridge. " _Gosh, how can I be so hungry right now? Maybe I'll just…"_ His stomach churned at the thought. " _On second thought...nah. Not with the way my stomach feels right now_."

Remembering the rock-like feeling in his gut, he continued through the kitchen, going past the refrigerator, to the back door. He turned on the back porch light and opened the door. As his eyes adjusted to the mix of darkness and light, was shocked at what he saw.

In the middle of the lawn, in front of the garden at the back, was a big crater about what Jason guessed to be 10 feet in diameter. There was smoke coming from inside the crater. Jason, thinking there might not be someone out here at this time of night but wanting to check, said out loud to himself, "Did a meteorite crash here or something? I don't recall hearing anything about a meteor shower, otherwise I would've stayed up to watch." He looked around, expecting to see or hear someone other than himself be disturbed by the loud noise.

" _How come nobody else heard it?_ " Jason thought as he cautiously stepped towards the crater and looked inside. What he saw perplexed him. There was a black orb at the bottom of the crater. Staying out of the crater, he examined the orb with confusion. "Well...that's unexpected" he said as a mixture of curiosity and excitement filled him. He then lightly jumped into the crater, which was still warm from the impact of the black orb. " _How is it even still intact?_ " He wondered to himself. He went up to the orb and slowly put his hand on the object. The orb was about the width of his outstretched hand, and was completely spherical. "Not even a scratch on it..." he said. Jason marveled at how the orb hadn't suffered in any way from its entry into the atmosphere. "It's not even warm...but, how?" He picked the orb up. It wasn't heavy. At all. Not in the slightest.

"Curiouser and curiouser..." he said, quoting Alice in Wonderland. "David would have laughed at that, what a stupid thing to say. Isn't there something else I could've said?" He laughed at himself a little, put the orb back where it was, and started to walk out of the crater. He looked back at the orb, and with a yawn, thought " _It seems to be doing no harm. I'll go back to bed and deal with it in the morning. I wonder what it is exactly...maybe it-"_ His thoughts were interrupted by a sound that was somewhat familiar, yet completely out of the ordinary. A sort of beeping, whooshing sound seemed to pop out of nowhere. He looked around for the source of the noise until his gaze settled on the orb in his hand. It was coming from the orb.

The orb started turning from black to white; slowly cycling through all colors as the air around it started moving. Jason wasn't afraid though, he was actually quite fascinated at this turn of events. He had seen and read a lot of sci-fi movies, tv and books. He wanted to know what would happen. As Jason moved closer to the strange sphere, the air started moving faster until the orb turned completely white. All the gears in Jason's mind didn't slow down, nor did any warning flags pop up as he slowly reached for the round object. The moment he touched it, everything stopped as the orb turned black again and the air slowed down. Jason then proceeded to pick up the orb a second time. "Well that was anticlimactic..." said Jason as his heart stopped racing from the anticipation of what might have happened. As he turned to go back inside the house, he jumped a good inch at what he saw.

He was surprised to see what might have been described as a hole. "Ummm…" was the only thing he could say and think as he gazed upon it. The hole appeared to be floating on its side in the air, as if someone drew a circle on a piece of paper, cut it out and taped it to a wall. Jason, seeing no imminent danger, moved towards the hole. He ventured behind it...and saw nothing.

"What..." he said, not thinking of anything else to say. He went back in front of the hole and looked closely at it. The inside of the hole was navy blue, with white bolts of lightning striking the rim of the hole. The perimeter of the hole was a perfect circle. Anyone who knows the basics of geometry knows that a perfect circle doesn't exist, yet here he was. Standing in front of one.

"Where did this come from?" he asked himself. He looked down at the object in his hand. "Did you do this?" he asked the orb. " _Silly me, you can't talk, you're just an orb. Or are you?_ " Jason scrutinized the sphere he held, squinting at it while he rotated it. He viewed every facet of the object but couldn't detect anything different about it. As he looked back at the portal, he didn't notice the orb starting to **glow** green. (Insert **Catastrophe - Super Mario Galaxy** here) The hole started to pull Jason towards it. "What the heck?" he said as his mind processed the situation. "What's happening?!" he said, starting to panic. He kept thinking to himself " _Stay calm, Jason. Stay calm_ " as he tried digging his feet into the ground to hold himself in place. The grass had other plans, because it was slick with morning dew. He stopped trying when he almost slipped. Jason managed to stay standing as the hole pulled him in closer. He looked around for anything to grab onto, then he realized he was still holding the orb, now glowing green. "What are you?!" he shouted at the orb. He yelled out as the hole sucked him in, then disappeared as if it was never there.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Hello, I Fell Through A Thing

 **Location: Unknown. Time: Unknown.**

Everything was confusing as heck. Jason had no idea of what was happening or where he was. He was still holding on to the orb, which was still glowing green. He looked around, and saw that he was flying at high speeds through the...what he thought of as a vortex of some kind. Amazingly, the lightning in the vortex was not striking him. He was baffled, for he was the only thing in the navy blue vortex that he could see...why wasn't the lightning hitting him? He looked at the orb again. _"Is it somehow...protecting me?"_ he questioned himself. Jason was never the one to outright deny something did or did not exist. He always tried to keep his mind somewhat open but there was nothing he could think of that could describe what was happening. His body felt like he was traveling at light speed, or at least, what he thought what light speed would feel like. The lightning and the vortex looked blurred, and he thought he saw different shapes that looked like more holes. He didn't know what to make of it, for the shapes were also blurred.

He looked at the orb again, and saw it was glowing white. "Now what?" He asked aloud. To be quite honest, Jason was exasperated at everything at the moment but mostly the orb still in his hands. "Seriously, I don't appreciate being taken against my will and I-AAAGH!" He was cut off mid-sentence as a searing pain went through his body that he was not entirely expecting. The pain was focused mainly on his stomach but he could feel a lesser pain throughout the rest of his body. Then the pain slowly subsided as the orb turned black again.

"What the heck was that for?" he asked the orb. It didn't respond. " _I must be crazy..._ " he thought. He looked back up in front of him. Before, there was nothing there but now he could barely make out another hole far in the distance. " _Portal maybe?_ " he wondered to himself. As Jason drew closer to the opening, he could make out on the other side of the portal was a metal grate floor of sorts. He also noticed that he was headed for the floor at a high velocity. " Aw crap...this is gonna hurt..." he said as he closed his eyes tightly, bracing himself for the worst. Then everything went black.

 **(Five hours later)**

Jason woke up to the sound of different science-y sounds. Well, he thought they were science-y. He couldn't really tell, his ears were ringing like crazy and he had a splitting headache. He felt like he was laying on metal and when he turned his head, he was on the floor that he remembered speeding towards, but it was blurry. " _I must've hit my head and conked out..._ " he surmised. " _Oh, joy._ " He tried getting up but his head started throbbing more so he gently went back down.

"Don't get up, you've had a nasty fall. I'm surprised you survived" said a mysterious voice Jason didn't hear before. He had trouble making out the voice but he could hear the words perfectly, which he found all too strange. "Just stay there and rest a little longer." the voice said. He tried to get a good look at the man, but his vision was still blurry. "What...happened?" Jason asked with a bit of a slur. "You have a concussion, got knocked out when you fell. You're lucky to be alive. That wormhole just appeared out of nowhere and you came falling through,and then you hit the floor" the man said as he stepped around the room, pulling levers and pushing buttons. As the man talked, Jason began to notice that the man's voice sounded British, and a bit too energetic for what Jason felt like right now. When he was done, he turned back to Jason, saying "Most people would have died from a fall like that, but there's not even a skull fracture on your head" with a bit of fascination.

" _So that's what the hole was..._ " Jason thought. "How long...have I been out?" Jason asked. "Oh, about...five hours." the man said. "Uuugh" Jason groaned. "Why me..." After a bit of staring at the ceiling, Jason tried to move again but with less pain in his skull.

"By the way, we haven't been introduced. What's your name?" the man asked the figure on the floor.

"Jason...what's yours?"

"Jason, great name. Nice to meet you Jason!" The man then introduced himself.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Pfft..Hehehe" Jason chuckled, "One, the Doctor doesn't exist. You must be lying to me. Two, you must be a Doctor Who fan to want to call yourself that."

"I'm sorry...what?" the man who called himself "The Doctor" asked. To Jason, he actually sounded confused. "You know, Doctor Who? The science fiction TV show aired on the British Broadcasting Channel?" Jason asked. "Mmmm...sorry, I've never heard of it. And I've heard and seen many things" the man said. "But if you've never heard of it..." Jason whispered. "Then that means..." Jason's eyes grew wide.

" _He could still be lying to me...but with everything I just went through it's not entirely out of the question._ "

"Tell me where I am. I need to know."

The man thought for a moment before replying, "Well, you wouldn't believe me if I told you, but I'll tell you anyway, seeing as that you fell through a wormhole. You are on the TARDIS. The Time And Relative Dimension In Space"

Time And Relative Dimension In Space..." Jason said along with the man. He then remembered the levers and buttons the man was pressing and pulling. "Oh...my gosh..." Jason said. "This is gonna be a stupid thing to do, but I hope it works." Jason sat up, mustered all the energy he had into his right hand, then slapped his face as hard as he could. "YOW!" Jason shouted. "That hurt!" Jason looked down at his hand. " _Didn't know I had it in me._ " The man, whom Jason believed now was the Doctor, was shocked at Jason's behavior. "What on Earth are you doing Jason? You just had a concussion. The last thing you need is another hit to the head. What the bloody hell were you thinking?" he asked. "I was thinking about whether it would work or not" Jason replied. Jason opened his eyes and his vision slowly became clearer. He could now see the man before him.

The man was tall and skinny, with spiky brown hair and young brown eyes, yet they looked so old. He was wearing a blue pinstriped suit, with a brown trench coat on top, white dress shirt underneath, and a dark red necktie around his neck. He was also wearing red San-shoes.

Jason now fully believed that this man was the two-hearted alien Time Lord, the Doctor. He looked around the room. It was a brown dome with circles surrounded by hexagons lining the walls all around them that looked like hex nuts. There were cables hanging down from the ceiling and strange squiggly support beams around the room. The cables were connected to the top of a hexagonal console in the middle of the room surrounded by metal walkways. The console had an interesting amount of buttons, levers, and what looked like a hammer along with a cell phone. In the middle of the console was a horizontal tube that was tinted cyan with a bulb-like object in it that moved up and down as it made the sound that Jason realized is what he was hearing before. Jason slowly stood up. "My goodness...it really is you."

"I'm sorry, have we met before?" the Doctor asked.

"No, not ever, but I know a lot about you Doctor."

"How?" the Doctor asked; curiosity piqued, hands in his pockets.

Jason replied "If you're real, then...I must be...but that's impossible, isn't it?" After a couple of seconds thinking about it, he answered. "I believe I'm in an alternate dimension."

(Insert **Doctor Who Series 5 Soundtrack Disc 1 - 4 Fish Custard** here)

" **What?**...What?!"

"Yep, I'm from a dimension where you don't exist Doctor" Jason said as he pointed at the Doctor "except as the main character in a fictional TV show called "Doctor Who", one of my favorite shows, that chronicles your adventures." The excitement in Jason's voice was clearly heard. "And you're real?! This is amazing, maybe even…" He looked in his mind for the right word "...fantastic!" Putting an emphasis on the "tas."

The Doctor, coming out of his trance of confusion, realizing the way Jason said that word sounded a lot like how he would say it, wondered to himself " _Is this true? Is he really from another reality? Or is he a trick by one of my enemies. If it is, I bet it was the Cybermen._ "

So he asked with some apprehension, "Alright, if you _really_ are from another reality with me as a fictional character, and you know of my adventures, where did I meet Martha Jones, what are the royal line secretly, and why should you count the shadows?"

Jason answered "A hospital on the moon, werewolves, and to avoid the Vashta Nerada" he finished with a smug grin.

The Doctor was shocked to say the least. "There's no way you could've known all that!"

"I also know that you love Rose Tyler, that she's in Pete's World, which you aptly named, and that she has her own Doctor."

"Not possible..." The Doctor's eyes grew wide.

"Nooo."

"Yeah."

"Nooo."

"Yep."

"Nooo." The Doctor said, mouth hanging open.

"Do you believe me now? I bet you thought that I was some sort of trick made by your enemies, hoping to destroy you." Jason said, laughing afterwards.

"Yeeeaah" the Doctor admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "But this is brilliant! How did you attain interdimensional travel?" Jason looked at the Doctor "I don't know..." But then he remembered something. "Did you see a black orb next to me when I...well...landed?" he asked. "You know what? I did. Didn't know what it was. Tried scanning it with my sonic screwdriver, but I couldn't get a reading. How did you come by it?" Jason proceeded to tell him the events that led him there.

 **(Twelve minutes later)**

"Well that's interesting" the Doctor said when the story was done. "You said you were having stomach problems before your incidental dimension hop, correct?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Also, you had some pimples before that?" Jason was trying to figure out where this was going. "Yeah..."

"Do you have stomach pain now?" The Doctor asked. Jason was confused, of course he had stomach pa...wait. He didn't. "No...but how?" Jason touched his face. "The pimples are gone too!" He was amazed that this miracle happened at this turn of events, even though his head still hurt. He would ask the Doctor if he had some ibuprofen later. He reached up to his neck. Even the mole was gone, too/

The Doctor asked "Was there anything that could have caused this?"

"Now that you mention it, when I was in the vortex, the orb started glowing white. Then sharp pain went through my body but focused mainly on my stomach. Did the orb heal me somehow?"

"I wouldn't be surprised" the Doctor said. "I'm going to run some tests on it and see if I come up with anything, I'm curious as to what it is."

"Alright." Jason said. "But, as much as I enjoy being here," he almost squeed at the knowledge of this, "I do need to find a way home." The Doctor pondered this for a few seconds before replying, "Well, you could come with me."

Jason's mouth hung open for a second before he closed it with a look of incredulity. "W-What?"

(Insert **Clockwork TARDIS** here)

 **The** Doctor smirked back at Jason. "You heard me. Come with me, see what my universe has in store and while we're at it, we'll look for a way to your universe and how you came to this one. What do you say?"

Jason tried to remain calm as he thought about it but found that he could not contain himself with excitement which was clearly visible in his countenance. He put his hand to his chin and said, " Hmmm, lemme think about it. Yes! Of course!"

"Fantastic!" said the Doctor, eyes gleaming and smiling big. "Where do you want to go first?" "Well, actually..." Jason hesitated a moment. "I kinda wanted to explore the TARDIS. I've always wanted to see the swimming pool in the library, and what other wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff is around."

"Haha, timey-wimey, I like you already" the Doctor said, his smile getting bigger. Jason smiled back. "This is gonna be great!" Jason then said "Allons-y!" and started walking towards the opening to his left. The Doctor turned to follow him.

"Oi, that's my line."

"I KNOW!" Jason yelled back with a smug grin on his face. The Doctor laughed and then caught up to Jason as he started his tour of the TARDIS.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Civil Rights

 **Location: The TARDIS. Time: Irrelevant.**

"So that's what a helter-skelter is. I always wondered what it was" Jason said as he and the Doctor walked through the corridors of the TARDIS. "Also, thanks for taking me by the wardrobe."

"No problem at all, Jason."

The Doctor went over the clothes that Jason had picked out for himself. Instead of the pajamas that Jason was wearing upon his arrival, he was now wearing a burnt orange t-shirt with light grey cargo shorts, white socks with black tennis shoes, and an orange-and-grey plaid fedora.

"You have an interesting choice of fashion, Jason."

"Speak for yourself, Mr. San-shoes."

"Oi! I've got a great taste in style. And they're not San-shoes."

"Yes they are."

"Anyways, why the orange?"

Jason looked down at the shirt he was wearing. "Because it's my favorite color and I must say I was a bit saddened that you didn't have any lighter shades of it. I like the way it stands out."

"And the fedora?"

"Because fedoras are cool. What I wouldn't give to be wearing mine right now..."

"You've got a point there. So you have fedoras?"

"Yeah." Jason said as he took the one off his head and examined the details. It wasn't like anything he knew a certain adventurer would wear, but he liked it nonetheless. "One would say I collect them. I currently have…" he paused as he searched his memory. "...seven fedoras. One for each day of the week. My favorite one was completely orange. It was also a bit fuzzy." The Doctor raised an eyebrow at that statement. "You're joshing me." Jason looked back at the Doctor with determination and a gleam in his eyes. "I'm completely serious. If there are two things I don't joke about, they are my fondness of hats and the color orange."

The two continued walking down the corridors of the TARDIS. "So tell me about yourself Jason. You already know about me, but I know little to nothing about you." Jason looked at the Doctor and contemplated his request. "Alright then. We should sit down for this, it might take a while." So the two of them sat down with their backs to the wall while Jason told The Doctor about himself.

"Let's see...where to start?" Jason mentally swam through his memories looking for a good starting **point** **.** (Insert **Rosalina's Storybook Theme Extended - Super Mario Galaxy** here) "Okay, I live on the outskirts of downtown Denver, the capital of Colorado, a state in the midwest United States, in the suburbs with my family. It consisted of my little sister Amelia, my little brother David, and my parents along with our dog Chester, and our cat Chai Nat or "Chai" for short. It sounds cuter."

"I'm what I like to call an extroverted introvert, meaning that I can be incredibly social yet I prefer to be alone, so I only have a couple of friends. I am, or...was, homeschooled, so I didn't get out very much. I met both of them when we were going through our local Boy Scouts as kids, and we've been best friends ever since. One of my two friends is Luke, an aspiring mechanical engineer. He's a very creative individual and loves to build things, whether it be Legos, K'nex or Lincoln Logs of all things. He's mechanically inclined, which leads him to find out how everything around him works. I remember one time where he took apart Zane's phone charger, only to attach it to a solar panel and make it charge phones in 10 minutes. To this day, he still won't tell us how he did it. The other one is Zane, who is almost as much a Whovian as I am."

"Whovian?"

"It's a big fan of the TV show that you're in, in my dimension."

"Ah, okay. Carry on."

"Zane is also somewhat of a self-proclaimed weapons expert, being able to handle most weapons with extreme dexterity." Jason remembered all the times Zane showcased his skills. The most recent being the laser tag games. "He also tends to go a little...insane from time to time. He has a mild case of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder which leads him to do somewhat crazy things. This one time, Zane almost got kicked out of a church because he was twirling his special comb around. Said comb opens up like a Butterfly Knife and can be perceived as dangerous. We eventually convinced the security guard to leave him be as long as Zane didn't do it again."

"All of us and my brother are what some people would call "nerds" but I like to see us as enthusiastic enthusiasts. We enjoy different movies, books, video games, and the like with great enthusiasm. I had just turned 18 years old yesterday and was getting ready to head off to college." Jason then laughed half-heartedly and said "Looks like "fate" has different plans for me." He looked off to the side as he stared at the ground to hide the bit of depression he gained from remembering exactly where he was. " _Is it even possible for me to return? My family would have a collective heart attack if I didn't. I don't want them to worry about me…"_

"And that's about it" Jason concluded.

As Jason ended the story, the Doctor was aligning the words to say in his mind as they left his mouth. "Well...first off, Happy Birthday! Second, your life sounds absolutely amazing." The Doctor put his arm around Jason's shoulders and looked at him straight in the eyes. "I will do anything in my power to help you get back, no matter how long it takes. I promise."

Jason let out a sigh as he took in what the Doctor said. " _He always was one to help those who were lost."_ "Thanks Doctor."

The Doctor got up to his feet and held his hand out for Jason. "Ah, come on, don't be so glum. There's an entirely somewhat new universe out there for you to explore." Jason grabbed his hand and The two got up and started walking towards the console room. " _Calm yourself, Jason_ " he told himself. " _The last thing you need is to have a mental breakdown. You must keep your emotions somewhat in check to prepare for whatever lies_ _ahead_ _._ " Jason remembered the last time he had let his emotions get the better of him, then mentally threw the memory off to the side as he turned to the Doctor and said "Question. Why IS the pool in the library?"

The Doctor replied "Honestly, I don't know. But it's a fun place for it. You can swim and relax while you read a good book. Can't beat that!"

Jason furrowed his brow as he mulled over the Doctor's response. "That...actually makes sense in a way."

After walking another few minutes,the two arrived back at the console room. "Well Jason, now that I've given you a tour, where would you like to go? Past or future? Earth or a different planet entirely? There are many possibilities." The Doctor said this while walking around the TARDIS console, pulling levers, pressing buttons, and flipping switches, all with a big grin plastered on his face.

"Hmmmmm..." Jason thought about where to go. When presented with so many possibilities, he wasn't exactly sure where he wanted to go. Then he got an idea. "Is there a way to randomize where we go? Like what you did with that random location generator thing when you travelled with Romana?" He asked.

The Doctor was surprised that Jason knew about Romana. That had been half a dozen regenerations ago. "Exactly how many of my adventures do you know about?" he asked. "As far back as when you met Ian and Barbara" Jason replied. "The show in my dimension has been around for 50 years."

"You know quite a lot then, don't you?"

"Yep, no one knows your name though, that hasn't been revealed yet. Don't worry."

The Doctor inwardly sighed in relief when he heard that. " _I wonder if he knows of my future?_ " He quickly pushed that train of thought off the tracks. He just hated spoilers. "That's dandy. To answer your question, I just have to put in a random set of coordinates and have the TARDIS check to see if it's safe to land there. We don't want to end up in the middle of a celestial body now, do we?"

"Then let's do that."

"Alrighty then!" the Doctor started to type in coordinates, then he pulled a lever down.

"Allons-y!"

The bulb inside the blue column started moving up and down as it made the whooshing, grinding sound the TARDIS makes. Then everything started shaking. Jason grabbed onto a railing to keep from falling, but smiled nonetheless. He always wanted to do this. The shaking continued for quite a bit as the Doctor kept flying the TARDIS through the time vortex. Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped, and everything went still. "We're here!" The Doctor said with a big grin on his face. He hadn't felt this eager to step through the TARDIS doors in many years. "The unknown is just behind those doors, how exciting!"

"Let's go then."

"Alright, let's see where we've ended up, shall we?" Jason nodded in response.

The Doctor opened up the doors and to both of their surprise, in front of them was a field, with interspersed trees. There were the sounds of rifles and cannons being fired and there were dead bodies everywhere, wearing uniforms colored red and blue. Cannonballs lied on the ground next to bloodied limbs and broken muskets. Jason stared with astonishment as he asked "Did we just land in the middle of the Civil War?"

"It appears so..." said the Doctor with a disgusted look on his face. "Why couldn't we have landed during the French Revolution? That's much better."

"That, and it's one of your favorite periods in Earth's history..." replied Jason.

"How did...oh yeah, TV show."

"Uh-huh."

"Anything else I should know?"

"You should have a gaming room in the TARDIS."

The Doctor gave Jason an incredulous, yet slightly confused look. "Really?"

"Yep. If I'm gonna stay with you for a while, I'm gonna have some normality gosh dangit. You could play too; have some relaxing fun once in awhile."

"Hmmm...maybe."

As this conversation was going on, they didn't see the cannon being aimed at the back of the TARDIS by one of the Confederate soldiers until it was too late. The cannon fired and the cannonball hit the TARDIS, knocking both human and Time Lord out of the doorway. The doors closed and locked behind them as the TARDIS proceeded to disappear in a beam of light.

"No, no, no, no, no, no" The Doctor stood up, not even thinking about brushing himself off. "Who took her this time?" Jason got up as well, but he had a scrunched up face. Upon hitting the ground face first, he managed to get some dirt in his mouth. "Bleck!" He said as he spit it out. Another taste than assaulted his tongue. "Ack! The air tastes like metal..." He stuck out his tongue and tried spitting the taste out as he brushed himself off. "Reminds me of when I tried learning electrics, and the wiring exploded with blue smoke. I couldn't get that smell out of my nose for an hour."

The Doctor's eyes lit up as he realized what just happened."That's it! Teleport exchange using teleport relays. Jason, you are brilliant!"

"Why thank you Doctor."

While the Doctor scanned the area with his sonic screwdriver, Jason thought about the TARDIS disappearing. "You think the Sontarans took it again?"

"I really should get used to you saying things that most people don't know...but they might have." The Doctor looked around at the battle. "I can't lock onto any specific location that the TARDIS might have been teleported to, so we'll have to walk until we find out. How could they have gotten teleport relays on the TARDIS so quickly?" A cannonball landed a few inches away from Jason's foot, spraying dirt onto them. "We should get somewhere safer right now" the Doctor said as bullet grazed his trenchcoat.

"That's a good plan. I like that plan!"

They proceeded to run from tree to tree, avoiding gunfire and cannonballs until they reached a dirt path along the field. After a few minutes of running along the path to make sure they were far enough away from the battle, they stopped and caught their breath. "I think...*gasp...I saw…*gasp...a sign…*gasp...when we were running…*gasp…"

The Doctor looked down upon the prone form of Jason as he tried rolling onto his back with his chest rising and falling quickly. "You don't get much exercise, do you?"

"Heck no, but now I wish i did"

"Well there was a sign. I believe it said "Hanover Road" wherever that is."

"That's…*gasp...good." Jason looked up at the partly cloudy sky. The sun was halfway down the sky at that time. A few birds flew overhead as they rested. "You know Doctor…" He started to wheeze out as he laid there, sprawled out on the ground. "I think I'm going to run on a treadmill every day from here on out."

"It would certainly help."

"You think?"

"Yes, I do. You of course know of my long time tradition when travelling?"

"Heh, time...and of course. That's the reason I suggested it in the first place."

"Good." The Doctor then thought of something that he still wished to learn from the young adult. "By the way, you haven't told me your last name yet."

"Oh? I thought I did." Once Jason finally started breathing at a normal rate, he answered the question. "The name's Moore. Jason Moore"

"Ah, short, simple and Irish. I like it. With a James Bond reference to boot."

Jason let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you caught that. My family and I picked up a habit of quoting works of fiction, movies mostly. Though their are some books, TV shows and games we've all played. When someone doesn't get our references, we think 'How could you not know this?!'"

"Well I've got quite the memory."

"Yet you still manage to forget the simplest of things."

"Oi!"

After gaining the energy to start walking, they continued down the path set before them. "Anyways, yes my last name is Irish." A look of amusement accompanied the smirk adorning Jason's face as he spoke. "It's funny...I have Irish ancestry on my father's side and Scottish on my mother's. Two cultures that differ greatly from each other and have had so many disagreements, yet are right next to each other have descendants that combine the two. That's irony for ya."

They came upon a large town a few minutes later. There was a wooden sign painted brown with bold, golden letters. Jason read it aloud. "Gettysburg. Population: 2,390. Then that means that..."

(Insert **Let's Listen: Majora's Mask - Song Of Healing (Extended)** here)

" **That** was the Battle of Gettysburg we landed in" the Doctor realized. "One of the most decisive battles in the American Civil War...8,000 dead...27,000 wounded...11,000 captured or missing." The Doctor knew much about this particular battle, seeing as it was a very important one to the history of the United States of America. Upon seeing the depression in the Doctor, Jason tried to find a way to lift his friend's spirits. He then thought of something. "Hey, you know that this entire war was for a good cause. The freedom of all slaves. If this war hadn't happened there might still be open slavery and people like Mickey Smith wouldn't be able to visit the United States without extreme prejudice."

This did little to improve the Doctor's attitude, but he saw the reasoning behind Jason's words. "You are right, Jason. Sometimes war needs to happen for change to occur."

Jason, being a U.S. citizen knowing some of his country's history, suggested "Hey, does this mean we can go watch the Gettysburg Address? I bet seeing it in person would be a lot better than viewing it on a Time-Space Visualizer."

"Time-Spa- oh, that old thing? Yeah, it would." The Doctor was visibly happier at the notion, a thin smile gracing his countenance. "That is a great idea. Although that doesn't happen for another four and a half months. In the meantime, we need to find the TARDIS so keep your eyes out for anything suspicious."

"Yes sir, General Doctor, sir!" Jason gave a mock salute. Well, his knowledge of history wasn't 100 percent accurate...

"Real funny, now come along. We've got to find the old girl."

"Okay...wait, won't we stand out? You know, with our clothes and all..." The Doctor thought about this, then replied "Nah, there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Did you notice anyone on the path as we walked?"

It was then Jason's turn to think. "No" he replied.

"Then that means the town is probably deserted, no one ever wants to get caught up in a battle. There shouldn't be anyone bothering us while we're in Gettysburg."

"Okay then, let us march. Look, there go all the lettuce heads marching their way to the front of the battle."

"That's ridiculous, lettuce would neve-ooooooh, a play on words. Clever."

"I do my best."

(Insert **SkyTown - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Music Extended** here)

The two walked into Gettysburg and true to the Doctor's word, there was no one in sight. **Every** building they looked at seemed vacant. There were no lights shining through the windows or children playing in the street. There were bulletholes riddled in the walls. More dead bodies lined the streets showing no sign of decay.

"The battle must have already passed through the town. That means this is the third and final day of the Battle of Gettysburg." The Doctor announced.

He may have not remembered the date of the Gettysburg Address, but Jason was sure he knew what today was. "That means the day is...ummm…" It was on the tip of his tongue. "...July-y-y 3rd? 1863." Jason picked up an old newspaper from two days ago and looked at the date. Sure enough, it said July 1st, 1863. After an hour of searching through assorted houses, stores and taverns, they came upon a train station. "Even the train station is abandoned" Jason observed. He looked in the ticket booth, but no one was there. "That's not right. From what I learned about this battle, even though the Gettysburg Train Station was abandoned, it was still used as a hospital for the wounded soldiers." He did not risk going inside the main part of the station itself because he did not want to get separated from the Doctor." _After all, getting separated usually leads to someone getting kidnapped, mugged, injured or killed."_ He reasoned with himself.

The Doctor looked around, scanning the area with his sonic screwdriver. He pointed it this way and that way as he twirled about. The two walked around the station to the landing and the sonic gave off a higher-pitched sound than usual. "Aha! This is where it happened." He breathed in deeply and licked the air like a lollipop. "There! That metal tang in the air. The teleport exchange must have taken place here. The taste is faint though, because it happened what, a few hours ago?" He knelt down and examined the wooden planks that made up the landing as Jason walked up to him. "There are scratches in the wood, like something heavy was dragged away. Whatever took the TARDIS has little to no useful technology."

Jason was confused. "What makes you think that?"

"Otherwise they, or it, would just put it in some sort of transport, or lifted it. But the TARDIS was dragged, therefore there's one strong one of them or a weak group of them."

"What about a small group of medium strength?

"Well, I guess that would work as well."

"I see…" Something was bugging Jason though "...but they have teleport relays. Why would they teleport it here instead of someplace secret? Why drag it at all?"

The Doctor pondered Jason's remarks as he slowly stood up. "You know what, I don't rightly know. It doesn't make much sense now, does it...the only real way of knowing is by following these marks."

The two traced the drag marks through Gettysburg. Bodies that had littered the way had been pushed to the side when whatever it was dragged the TARDIS through town. The tracks ended short of a storm cellar door on the North side of town. The faded brown double doors looked like they had been there ever since the town began. "This is where the tracks stop." The Doctor said. "But how did they get the TARDIS through such a small door?"

"Maybe the entrance is bigger on the inside."

"Oh, haha." The sarcasm was evident in the Time Lord's voice.

Jason just stood there and smirked. "You know it's funny. So any idea on what's down there?"

"Well...there's only one way to find out." The Doctor said as he took hold of the latch and opened the door. They peered down inside and observed the dirt floor with two wooden walls on either side. They looked towards the back of the room, but there was no back to look at. There was a gaping hole surrounded by piles of dirt, rock and splintered wood where the wall used to be. "Now that's interesting" the Doctor started. "What could have possibly made this?" He looked to Jason for any opinions but was greeted with only a shrug. "Weeell there's only one way to find out" and with that, he then jumped in the cellar.

" _You've gotta be kidding me._ "

A French accent invaded his thoughts for a moment. " _Well, what did you expect?"_

" _Now is not the time to be a Spy. Plus, I kinda expected something along these lines anyway. Right now, I need to go after him._ "

"Hey, wait up man!" Jason jumped in with the intention of following the Doctor. He left the entrance wide open but when he hit the floor, the door closed behind them and locked itself.


End file.
